Natural Edge Goblet

[Thomas Canfield]

After popping off that I was going to turn a goblet, I decided to try one. I had loaned my TURNING GREEN WOOD book that had the instructions, so did the best from memory at my first attempt. The results was not that good, but not discouraging. The wood is Bradford Pear that I had salvaged earlier this week and extremely wet, but turned very easy until the catch. I did learn that when using a Stronghold chuck and the large head on the Powermatic one should have a longer work length from chuck to base to allow for entrance of spindle gouge to remove inside bottom. It will be some time befoe trying another, but this was well worth the 30 minute trial run. The test wood was also not well rounded and the pith was too close to center and ended up partly in the stem. Goblet is 2" D and 6" H with 1/4" stem.

[Allen Neighbors]

Hey, Thomas, how's it going with you?
That's a good first try, even if it did break.
I have a fresh piece of Bradford Pear that a friend brought by last week. It's in my kiln, right now, with anchor seal on both ends... after seeing this, I may try one!
Good show!
Are you going to SWAT? I can't... I'll be in Colorado at the same time it's taking place. Drat!

[David E Keller]

It looks pretty good for a first run. Now you have to do another... You can't quit on the broken base:D

[John Keeton]

Aside from that catch, looks like you did a great job from here!!

a longer work length from chuck to base to allow for entrance of spindle gouge to remove inside bottom.That lesson gets learned quckly, doesn't it!!;) Keep in mind that when you want a little concavity on the base, you can achieve that by drawing the spindle gouge toward you in a shearing scrape against the bottom. When I part off a finial and need a concave base, I nibble away with push cuts toward the base, and finish each cut with a pulling shear against the base using both wings of the detail gouge. It will hollow out the base and leave a very clean surface.

Hope that made sense?!:confused:

[Thomas Canfield]

David - I don't plan to quit, but have 6 sections 15" + to rough out and a weeks commitment to work with church group repairing a couple of houses. I don't want to loose the larger pieces and think that the limb sections will hold longer.

Alan - I do plan to meke SWAT and will miss seeing you there, but know that Colorado will much cooler. I have most of the Bradford Pear tree now on my driveway after cutting it up and sealing ends. I have put out info for locals to give me a call and hopefully will give most of it away before having to load in in truck for the July East Texas Woodturners meeting to get give the rest away.

[Thomas Canfield]

John - that does make sense. Because the wood was so wet, I was trying to avoid a fairly flat base and resulting warpage, and that added to the problem. My wife made the comment "It is so wet" when I showed her the piece, but 24 hours later it had lost most of that moisture. Turning wood that wet is something else and its strenght much less than dry. The wood was so soft that tearout occured with just the least dulling and sharpening was as critical as on dry finish cuts.

[Dennis Ford]

Keep trying, you were doing fine up until the OOPs. I have done several of these and find that the bowl section is the hardest to get completely "right". Parting off the almost finished goblet is where it is most likely to go completely wrong. A concave base is necessary to prevent cracking during the drying.
I ground a custom parting tool just for this job, (got the idea from a Jimmy Clewes demo) it works well but is not forgiving at all. At least three goblets have broken just like yours, usually while I was pulling the tool out of the cut.